Chapter 21 (1/2)

FLIGHT OF THE DRAGON, DANCE OF THE PHOENIX – CHAPTER 21

Mrs. Long San who ran for her life and became a vagrant

When Feng Ning collapsed, it gave the three a.s.sa.s.sins quite a scare, as they thought she was just pretending. As they paused for just a moment, another two guards arrived from downstairs, and engaged the a.s.sa.s.sins in combat, allowing Feng Ning a respite in which to catch her breath.

She supported herself with her hands on the ground and forced herself to get up, and placed the container inside her clothes, at seeing this a man in black hurried attacked her with a sword, Feng Ning clenched her teeth and dodged the attack, and saw from the corner of her eye a Long Family guard receive a blow and stop moving, while the other guard had been forced to the edge of the stairs. At this time, another man in black arrived, and the guard was forced to turn around and defend against him, causing Feng Ning to fall into the unfavorable situation of three-on-one odds.

At this time, Feng Ning’s entire body was stiff, and she had no confidence in herself, there was no escape route behind her, while there were strong enemies in front, and she felt like she was stuck between a rock and a hard place. She backed up step by step, until her back was leaning against the windowsill. The three men in black raised their swords and blocked her path, and Feng Ning just stared at them, while her mind was completely blank.

“Give us the item.” That familiar voice ordered Feng Ning in a cold tone of voice.

Feng Ning stared at his eyes, and kept silent. Another man in black looked at the lake outside the window a bit nervously, they didn’t force the issue against Feng Ning because they were worried that Feng Ning would jump into the lake if she got desperate enough, and if the item sank with her, that would be the worst case scenario.

Feng Ning kept an expressionless face, and breathed deeply several times, she tried her best to not think about what was outside the window, she thought instead about the expression that Long San had when he said “I trust you” to her, the sincerity in his eyes at that moment.

The man in black narrowed his eyes, and lost his patience, and stabbed at Feng Ning in a lightning-fast attack, but unexpectedly, at this moment, Feng Ning shouted loudly, and swept her blade towards the three of them, the man in black hurriedly stepped back half a step to dodge the attack, and Feng Ning took this opportunity to throw away her blade, and she turned around and jumped out the window, shouting: “even if I die, I won’t let you guys have it.”

When Feng Ning jumped, not only were the three men in black really shocked, Feng Ning herself felt her heart stop for several beats as well. After jumping, she shut both her eyes as tightly as she could, and she couldn’t see anything, and relying only on her instinct and intuition, as she was falling from the window, her hands barely managed to make contact against the windowsill, and she used this to swing herself up onto the rooftop.

Without being able to see anything, she wasn’t able to position her hands correctly, she almost ran straight into the roof, she injured the tips of her fingers by sc.r.a.ping them, and twisted her finger as well, it hurt quite a lot, but she couldn’t worry about all this right now, the moment her feet landed on the roof she opened her eyes. She didn’t land that well, and her body shook back and forth a few times, and she almost fell off, she did her best to calm down, and regain her balance, and considered herself really lucky.

Since the lake was right behind her, Feng Ning’s entire body was quite stiff, and she didn’t have the courage to look behind her, she started running immediately, and wanted to jump off the roof to meet up with the guards again, but saw that two men in black on the ground were pointing their swords at her while shouting something, probably reporting her location to the other a.s.sa.s.sins. At this time, the three men in black from before had arrived as well while chasing her, and Feng Ning had no more time to pause in hesitation, she could only change her direction, and she jumped towards a nearby tall tree.

The men in black were close on her tail, and since Feng Ning was unarmed, with no reinforcements coming to her aid, she kept getting more and more scared as she ran, she really hoped that she could meet up with someone that could help her, but she also worried that if she met up with some people from the Long Family that were weaker in martial arts, that it would cause their deaths instead, she couldn’t think of what to do.

While sprinting, she reached the extremely tall wall around the Long Family manor, when Feng Ning took a look behind her, there were actually six or seven men in black chasing her, they probably abandoned everything else just for the container that was on her. Feng Ning clenched her teeth, and jumping on the tips of her toes, she leaped over the wall.

The pitch-dark streets were eerily quiet, Feng Ning ran towards the wrong direction, taking the opposite direction of the officials and the emperor’s personal troops that were on their way to the Long Manor, she didn’t meet any allies, and she couldn’t find any place to escape to in such a large town, as the men in black behind her pursued her relentlessly, she could only sprint all-out, taking as many sudden twists and turns as possible, circling around throughout town, until she finally hid herself in a clump of tall gra.s.s at an abandoned building, and was able to take some breaths of respite.

Feng Ning thought, it should become light out soon, since the men in black were dressed like that, they wouldn’t dare to behave like that in broad daylight, they would have to stop somewhere and change their clothing, and that will give her a chance to bring the item back safely. But, on second thought, what will happen even if she brings the item back? Head Steward Tie isn’t there, nor are Long Er or Long San, and the guards must have suffered heavy losses tonight as well, since these a.s.sa.s.sins had the audacity to attack a general’s residence right under the nose of the emperor, they must have quite some backing behind them in order to even dare such an attempt.

They knew what to target, and even had the specific location of the container’s hiding spot pinned down, as well as knowing Grandma Yu’s status, and knew the formations and mechanisms in the Long Family well, Feng Ning won’t believe that there isn’t a traitor within the Long Family. She thought about Xia Er, perhaps Xia Er was one of the spies? But she had been accidentally chased out of the manor, and since the manor probably still has someone inside plotting against it, if she brings this item back, what if it gets stolen again?

As Feng Ning curled up within the stinky clump of gra.s.s, she thought that the best plan of action would be to hide until Long Er or Long San returned, and she could give it back to one of them personally.

She thought over and over about it, and decided not to return to the manor for now, and to secretly get out of town and hide in the suburbs for two days or so, to wait for Long San and the others to return.

The sky gradually turned brighter and brighter, and Feng Ning put her ear against the ground and listened, and heard no more sounds of people searching the area, then she finally crawled out of the gra.s.s as quietly as possible. At such a remote location, there was n.o.body around in sight, Feng Ning took a good look at herself, she was covered all over in dirt and blood, and she wasn’t able to comb her hair last night, her clothes were tattered from fighting, her socks were missing, this probably doesn’t look any better for her than wearing night clothes does.